Providence got off to a slow start and after coming back to go up by 8 in the second half, couldn’t put Marquette away. The Golden Eagles finished the game on a 15-6 run.
Ben Bentil was Providence’s main scoring cog, doing a lot of his damage at the free throw line where he went 10/10. Bentil finished with 28 points and 9 rebounds.
Kris Dunn played solid but had some critical turnovers and mental errors. He finished with 17 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
Haanif Cheatham led Marquette with 16 points and appeared to be able to get to the rim at will against a Providence defense that clearly showed a lack of rim protection tonight against Marquette’s drives.
Henry Ellenson finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, a few points shy of his average but right on the nose for rebounds. He had a big block to close things out.
Free throws for everyone not named Bentil were an issue and could have been the difference in the game. Dunn was 3/6 and Bullock was 1/2.
Bullock had a solid rebounding total at 9 boards but never seemed to get into any offensive rythym. He had 8 points on 3/11 from the field.
Duane Wilson hit the game-winner for the Golden Eagles on a tough drive where he finished through some contact from Bullock.
Marquette gets their first Big East win of the season and its on the road against the #8 team in the country.
Providence falls to 2-1 in league play.
The Friars return to action on January 12th against Creighton at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha at 8:30pm EST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
The Big East Player of the Week honor is staying in Friartown as Kris Dunn was named POW a week after Ben Bentil was given the same weekly award. This is Dunn’s third time being named the Big East’s Player of the Week after the Providence junior was named the award winner in week’s 1 and 3 of the season. Dunn was also the league’s preseason Player of the Year. Dunn averaged 23 points/game, 8 rebounds/game, 7.5 assists/game and 2.5 steals/game in Providence’s 2-0 start in Big East play.
Both ESPN and CBS Sports came out with their inaugural 2016 Bracketology updates on Monday. Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm are in agreement on the Friars in opponent and location of the First Round game. Each man’s bracket has the Friars facing off against High Point University in Brooklyn in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. They do differ on the particular seed, however.
This Thoughts from the Road is brought to you by nachos and pizza from Trinity Brewhouse and is fueled by the hospitality of the Smerkers and their insanely comfortable couch.
Before I get into my thoughts from the actual game against St. John’s, I want to share a text I got from my buddy Charlie: “I think the bandwagon is finally full for this team.” Chaz is right on with that thought. Downtown Providence was absolutely hopping on Saturday. Murphy’s filled up by noon and the wait for a table at Trinity approached an hour. When this season started, Providence vs. St. John’s on a Saturday afternoon of New Year’s weekend being a sellout was not something I would have expected. That’s exactly what happened. Ed Cooley told people he was going to light Providence on fire. If you haven’t gotten onboard, as Cooley suggested, you’re late.
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